Ladies and gentlemen, the bird 16:25:14:12
ensemble. 16:25:20:25
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>> This whole wonderful 16:27:14:21
ensemble. 16:27:17:12
We're going to single out this 16:27:18:09
guy and pick on him. 16:27:19:21
This is mark and he is the 16:27:21:27
cofounder of the bird ensemble. 16:27:24:00
How did you pull this whole 16:27:25:28
group together? 16:27:27:15
>> We all started singing in 16:27:28:07
2003, actually maybe just three 16:27:29:10
of us, and it was just a casual 16:27:31:06
setting and we decided we wanted 16:27:32:21
to perform officially. 16:27:34:07
So here we are nearly 10 years 16:27:35:27
later with a pretty full group. 16:27:37:13
>> Let's talk about the name 16:27:43:13 5
sake of your group. 16:27:44:09
I'm going to hit you with the 16:27:45:19
tough questions. 16:27:46:25
>> Sure. 16:27:47:28
>> Why the bird ensemble? 16:27:48:07
>> We're named after renaissance 16:27:50:00
composer William bird, who is 16:27:52:06
one of our favorite English 16:27:53:28
renaissance composers and he is 16:27:55:24
such a versatile musician and 16:27:57:10
composer. 16:28:00:03
We fell in love with his music 16:28:00:18
and decided to name ourselves 16:28:02:12
after him. 16:28:04:00
>> You've mentioned the word 16:28:04:10
renaissance a couple of times. 16:28:05:09
Let's talk about your focus on 16:28:07:15
the renaissance era. 16:28:08:28
Why is that? 16:28:10:24
>> The renaissance era was a 16:28:11:03
great time for singers. 16:28:12:19
These big pieces written for up 16:28:13:22
to 50 parts were just written 16:28:15:28
for the voice. 16:28:17:18
And some of them were very long. 16:28:18:03
They really felt like symphonies 16:28:19:22
for the human voice. 16:28:21:15
And so we decided to really 16:28:22:15
capitalize on that great period 16:28:24:07
of music. 16:28:26:03
>> Now, also, something 16:28:27:06
interesting about the 16:28:28:09
renaissance era is that a lot of 16:28:29:06
performing groups in that era, 16:28:30:27
women were not a part of the 16:28:32:24
group. 16:28:33:22
>> True. 16:28:34:03
>> Although they are a part of 16:28:34:12
this group, you also hold on to 16:28:35:15
the tradition of having males 16:28:37:07
sing the Alto part. 16:28:38:27
Let's talk a bit about that. 16:28:40:22
>> Right. 16:28:42:12
So Josh, who sings Alto for us, 16:28:42:21
and we do like the male Alto 16:28:45:00
sound because it's thick and it 16:28:48:00
adds some clarity to that sort 16:28:50:12
of midrange of the human voice. 16:28:52:21
>> Could we hear a little bit 16:28:58:07
about that? 16:28:59:18 6
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>> Wonderful, wonderful. 16:29:12:01
The bird ensemble. 16:29:13:15
You can catch them, their 16:29:14:21
concert is coming up at the 16:29:16:00
trinity Paris church in Seattle. 16:29:17:00
>> Yep. 16:29:19:00
>> On April 6th. 16:29:19:09
>> Right. 16:29:20:15
>> 7:30 p.m. 16:29:21:00
>> Great. 16:29:22:01
>> Mark and the bird ensemble. 16:29:23:01
Thank you. 16:29:26:13
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